Did Oxygen supplies in India really are declining?

As India touches 1.6 crore total number of Covid-19 infections, a number of states have reported shortages of medical oxygen for a growing pool of patients in need of oxygen support. India plans to import 50,000 metric tons of medical oxygen to cater to the rising demand. 

The problem is very acute in rural areas, which are going through a rise in Covid-19 cases but have no large storage tankers. It seems that the government is wasting the time for inviting tenders to install Oxygen plants is one of the reasons for depleting Oxygen stocks in the country.

India is staring at an Oxygen crisis when a pandemic virus is devastating in the second wave. PM Modi’s speech also revealed that the government did not take any steps in building Oxygen plants after the first wave. Many complaints are from hospitals across the nation saying that there is no Oxygen. Some of the hospitals in Delhi and Maharashtra have worried about depleting their Oxygen stocks within a few hours. Like exporting made in India vaccines in the name of vaccine policy, Indian government exported more than double the amount of Oxygen in 2021-2022 to other nations.

Demand for medical oxygen has skyrocketed when the second wave was severely devastating the nation. On each day, India breaks the previous day’s record in getting a number of cases. Supplying oxygen to the hospitals is a key moment to control the pandemic. The shortage has threatened the lives of the patients in hospitals who joined other than coronavirus complaints. The demand for Oxygen is increasing even then the government has constantly claimed that the country has ample of oxygen production units. Finally, Indian government has imposed a ban on sale of oxygen for industrial purposes from April 22^nd onwards. Indian railways have established green corridors to facilitate fast movement of Oxygen express trains which have supplied Oxygen cylinders across the nation.